The Culture Map

The Culture Map

Welcome to post 3 of 5 in a mini-series on cultural intelligence. So far, we have looked at what culture is and the five stages of developing cultural intelligence. This post is about learning to eat an elephant in small bites. Culture is a very broad concept and can be analyzed by looking at it’s component parts. There are many models out there for analyzing culture and many of them use the idea of dimensions. Our favorite model is presented by Erin Meyer in her book called ‘The Culture Map.’ Erin proposes 8 dimensions along which cultures can be placed and analyzed. Especially relevant is one culture’s placement relative to another.

The eight dimensions are:

• Communicating

• Evaluating

• Persuading

• Leading

• Deciding

• Trusting

• Disagreeing

• Scheduling
Can you define each of these dimensions? Which dimensions are related to each other? Where is your culture or cultures on the different continuums? What kinds of challenges can arise from different placements?

I have to say that personally I feel that there are aspects of life which are not covered in these 8 dimensions. Two examples are: attitude towards money and dealing with problems. There are others as well. I would love to meet Erin Meyer and discuss someday!

Join us for our workshop called ‘Opening Doors Across Cultures’ on May 19th in Asok, Bangkok to learn more!